MLB free agency overhaul could spark a winter signing frenzy
MLB proposes free agency overhaul that could turn the Winter Meetings into a fast paced signing frenzy.
The hatred, the criticism, the nastiness, is all over.
They can’t get Arte Moreno anymore.
Moreno, who tried to sell the Los Angeles Angels four years ago but changed his mind five months later, remained patient and finally got his price to escape baseball’s rat race, just ahead of baseball’s anticipated Dec. 1 lockout.
He is selling the franchise for an MLB record $4 billion to sports mogul Stan Kroenke, according to a high-ranking MLB official with knowledge of the agreement. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the terms of the deal were not immediately public.
Moreno, 80, who purchased the Angels for less than $200 million – just one year after they won the World Series – to become baseball’s first Latino owner with his wife, Carole, never came close to duplicating the success.
They spent money, brought in some of the biggest stars in the sport with Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton, and had a franchise player in Mike Trout, earned five division titles in a six-year span, but haven’t made the postseason since 2014.
They have the worst team in the American League (53-85), with their postseason drought extending to 12 years, and are on pace to lose 100 games for the first time in franchise history.
Now, after enduring chants of “Sell the Team,” with attendance shrinking and Angels’ fans turning their backs on the franchise, Moreno decided it was time to get out.
The decision stunned some of his closest friends in the industry, although one associate said he wasn’t surprised at all, believing that Moreno already showed signs of losing interest.
Really, we should have all seen this coming. When Moreno fired GM Perry Minasian in June and brought in former St. Louis Cardinals baseball chief John Mozeliak, on the advice of president Molly Jolly, Mozeliak suddenly had more autonomy that existed under the last three Angels GMs.
Mozeliak was able to trade away veteran players like outfielder Jo Adell and starter Jose Soriano for prospects at the deadline, something that Moreno would have prohibited the last two decades. Mozeliak, who brought in nine prospects at the trade deadline, even was permitted to completely restructure his front office this week.
Yet, he refused to allow Minasian to even take serious offers for Shohei Ohtani three years ago at the trade deadline, wanting to re-sign him in the off-season. When Ohtani received his free-agent offers and told Moreno that he’d come back for the same 10-year, $700 million contract that he was being offered by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays and San Francisco Giants – including $680 million in deferrals – Moreno passed without bothering to counter.
Even with the historic amount of deferred money, Moreno told his front office, “It’s still $700 million.”
So, the Angels received nothing in return for the biggest marketing star in baseball history, let alone the most talented since perhaps Babe Ruth, watching the Dodgers win back-to-back World Series and bring in more than $1 billion in revenue.
While the Dodgers stole the spotlight in Los Angeles, Moreno didn’t blink, with their free-agent signings so pedestrian that there was not a single press conference for a free agent in Minasian’s 5 ½-year tenure.
The Angels, who have hired five managers since Mike Scioscia’s departure after the 2018 season, didn’t even allow Minasian to offer any managerial candidate a contract longer than one year. Moreno had planned to hire Pujols, believing that he’d simply accept the $1 million personal services contract he already had with the team as part of his 10-year, $250 million deal. When Pujols asked for more as manager, including the right to hire most of his coaches, he was rejected, and the team turned to front office executive Kurt Suzuki, who accepted a one-year deal.
Moreno now walks away with at least a $3.8 billion profit, and can sit back in his Phoenix estate eating hot dogs and drinking beers watching several ballgames a day, without having to endure any more heartache.
It now is Kroenke’s baby, who also owns the Rams, the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, the Colorado Rapids of MLS and the Arsenal of the Premier League.
Kroenke, who tried to buy the Dodgers a decade ago, is expected to keep the Angels in Anaheim, and expand his footprint across the Los Angeles and Orange County landscape.
“The Angels are a storied franchise anchored in a great market,” Kroenke said in a statement. “We look forward to an exciting future with the Angels organization.”
So do their fans, who now will start dreaming of a day that Trout returns to the postseason before his Hall of Fame career ends.
Maybe, Anaheim once again can be the “Happiest Place on Earth.”